Nine Lives
by Fivellion
Summary: The tale of a simple cat, and the lengths at which he will go to amuse himself.
1. Chapter 1

Nine Lives

Chapter 1

Once upon a time, there was a cat who lived in the city of Athens. The cat loved to play cruel jokes on humans, who were so easy to fool. He loved to play jokes because he didn't like people. He didn't like people because, unlike many cats, he did not have a home, or someone to stroke him and scratch behind his ears.

One day, the cat wandered into the temple of Aphrodite, goddess of love and beauty. Her statue of white marble towered over the small cat. He stared a moment, then yawned. He was bored. He leaped onto the platform on which the statue rested and began to sharpen his claws on one white ankle.

All at once, there came a rumbling sound. The cat gave a start. A flock of doves flew into the temple. From the cloud of flapping wings appeared a most beautiful woman with a most ugly expression upon her lovely face. "What have you _done_ to me?!" boomed the goddess. Her doves rushed from the temple in fear.

The cat settled back onto his haunches. "Pardon?" it asked. "Are talking to me, Great Goddess?"

Aphrodite's eyes burned with rage. "Yes, cat! You! Do you not have eyes? Do you not see whose ankle you have ravaged? Whose beauty you have marred?" she said.

The cat looked at his claws. He looked at the teeny, tiny little grooves in the marble of the statue. He looked at Aphrodite. He looked at his claws again. ". . .Yours?"

"Do not mock me! Do not gaze upon me! You sicken me!" said the goddess, shrilly.

The cat did not look away. "It's just your ankle. Not even yours- your statue's."

"My likeness is indeed myself! It is utter perfection. Look! Look! Do you see? They come, every day my admirers come! They will come today! And what will they find? They will find this. . . this _thing _that is not me at all!" ranted the goddess. The cat stared, and suddenly had a wicked thought.

"Still," said the cat, "an ankle is an ankle. I know humans, Great Goddess. They will not notice. Such slender legs, for instance," The cat had risen to his paws and was now gracefully climbing the leg of the statue. "will surely draw their attentions away."

Aphrodite's anger ebbed slightly.

The cat bounced off the statue's hip. "That hourglass waist. . ." He gushed. "And any young maiden on all of our earth could only dream of having such long flowing hair!"commented the cat, while scaling his way to the statue's shoulder.

Aphrodite ran a hand through her own golden hair.

"And we can't forget that enthralling personality." he said as he rubbed his flank against the statue's smooth cheek. "If I were you, I wouldn't be at all upset with me- a poor, mangy stray cat- about a little ankle scratch. Not when I have so much else going for me."

Aphrodite's anger was diffused now. She was watching him intently.

"I wouldn't be angry with me," he continued, "unless I did _this._" In one swipe the cat clawed three nasty grooves into the perfect marble face, disfiguring the statue.

Aphrodite screamed. She screeched at the cat with venom, "You evil, horrid thing! This abomination will be your tomb!" The statue began to crack from the feet up. It shook violently. The cat lost his grip and fell to the platform, marble ruble tumbling after. The cat's last moments before he was crushed under stone were of wicked glee.

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_Hey, y'all! This was originally a homework assignment that got a bit... strange. Anyway, it's not over yet! I hope you liked this first installment!_

_~ Kayla_


	2. Chapter 2

Nine Lives

Chapter 2

When it was discovered that something or someone had destroyed the statue of Aphrodite, a crowd of Athenians gathered around the scene. They knew they must rebuild it- and quickly! Or suffer the goddess of love's wrath. Unnoticed by the throng of people, a small tabby cat slinked out from under the debris and made its way out of the temple.

Outside the temple, the city was alive with the sounds and sights of Pyanopsia, the festival held every October in honor of Apollo, god of the sun, prophesy, healing, and the arts. The cat walked through the streets of Athens, carefully avoiding the many stamping feet. Many of the people carried with them olive branches with jars of honey, oil, and wine attached. They would offer these to Apollo in exchange for the promise of good health. The cat was then struck with a most brilliant idea.

He leapt onto the nearest high pillar and cried, "Hear me, Athenians! Hear me, men, women and children! I come from a land across the sea upon a ship! I bring you gold, wine, and sweet leg of oxen!" The cat paused only to make sure he had the attention of the crowd before continuing, "I also bring you bountiful fleas from the beds of plague-stricken foreigners!" On all sides, people stared at the cat in shocked silence. "Enjoy!"

Pandemonium is the only proper word to describe what ensued. Commoners ran to and fro, left and right, into each other and on top of each other. They shrieked, hollered, and hyperventilated. The cat (who, incidentally, was quite well-groomed) watched, seated neatly with his tail tucked over his paws, nice and safe on his tall pillar, and was soon laughing delightedly.

"Oh, you think this _humorous, _do you?" The cat felt himself be jerked roughly off the pillar by the scruff of his neck. He saw the sky whirl above him for a moment, then came face-to-face with a young man, handsome and smooth-cheeked. The cat gave no answer.

"Look at these people! You've driven them into hysterics! Plague!" he chided scornfully. "I've never heard such a forked tongue. You are a loathsome cat." He tossed the cat down at his feet and wiped his hand off on his toga, as if it really did carry plague.

The cat, true to his name, landed on his feet. "What's it to do with you?" he asked promptly.

"I," he replied, "am _always_ present at my festivals. I come to hear their prayers, to partake in the frivolity."

"_Your_ festivals?" the cat began. Then it dawned on him. "You're Apollo."

The god sniffed. "Do you know, cat, why I am known as a healer of sickness?"

"Hm." The cat picked his teeth. "Is it because you can _create_ sickness and disease, as well as kill it?"

"No, it-" Apollo scowled. "Yes, that is why. And the plague is a specialty of mine. This little trick you played- you have made a grave error playing it on this, the day of Pyanopsia." Apollo raised a cold hand, pointed it at the cat. "Die."

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_Thanks millions my lovely reviewers ^_^ I've gained a bit of confidence now (if you haven't stopped by my profile, you won't have noticed, but this is my first-ever story). I'm very pleased, but know that critisms, questions, suggestions, predictions, ect. are very much welcome!_

_Later,_

_-Kayla_


	3. Chapter 3

Nine Lives

Chapter 3

When the cat awoke, he was on the rooftop where he had been taken by sickness. "Another life- gone." he said to himself. "Yet so many remaining! Why should I worry? I cannot be slain!" And with that cheerful proclamation, he made his way to the ground, and proudly away from a city in turmoil.

The cat rested himself on the outskirts of the city. The sun was setting, and the night was cold. The cat shivered.

"Here, cat!" called a voice. "Come and warm yourself by my fire." The cat turned. A woman kneeled by a small, glowing fire nearby. She was smiling. The cat approached with caution, and sat by the lady's fire. It warmed his fur nicely.

"I am Hestia, goddess of the hearth." said the woman. The cat nodded in understanding; Hestia had a reputation as the kindest and warmest of deities. "And who might you be?"

"I am a cat." said the cat.

"Good to know, then," smiled Hestia, "that my eyes do not fail me."

After a time, the cat asked, "What are you doing here?"

"Why, shouldn't I be here?" asked the goddess.

"Well. . . you are an Olympian, no? The sister of Demeter, Hera, Poseidon, and Hades? Of _Zeus_? Why are you not on Mt. Olympus?" pressed the cat.

The goddess stoked the fire calmly. "I gave up my seat among the twelve Olympians. I stoke the Sacred Fire now." She pointed off to the horizon, where a distant light could be seen. The cat would have taken it for a star. "For the moment, I am merely resting. But I must return soon."

"Why?"asked the cat.

"Because it must be kept burning." She replied.

"Why?"

"Because it is the Sacred Fire."

"Ah." said the cat. "Hmm."

Hestia gazed at him strangely. "What, 'hmm'? What is it?"

"What? Oh, nothing." answered the cat.

"No, cat, tell me! What does '_hmm_' mean?"

"No, no, really, it's nothing, it's just. . . I don't know, it just seems like they're trying to. . . to be rid of you, or something." The cat knew what he was doing, but he couldn't seem to stop himself; this was too much fun.

When there came no answer from the goddess, the cat went on, "Oh, don't mind me, I think it's just all this dodgy 'Sacred Fire' business. I mean it's just a fire, right? The world wouldn't end if it went out."

"It can't be allowed to go out." said Hestia quietly.

"Oh, no, of course not. But I mean, if you can only leave it for so long, and not too far either, you're stuck, aren't you? You can never go where ever the other gods go, do whatever it is they do. . . Doesn't seem very fair to me."

"No," Hestia shook her head slowly. "no. . . The fire is important! It, it. . . It lights the way for weary travelers!"

"Which makes perfect sense why they would employ one of the Great Goddesses of Olympia to stoke it." The cat smirked.

Hestia gave a huff. "Well, not just anyone can do it."

"Really? Not even a monkey with lighter fluid?"

The goddess's face colored. "Oh, do you want proof?" Hestia snatched the cat up around his middle and bounded for the distant mountain. In two or three strides, they were there. Hestia let the go, and he found himself on the peak of Mt. Olympus, with a huge, burning hearth nearby.

"You see?" Hestia shouted over the roaring and crackling of the flames. "You see, cat? It is not just any fire!"

The cat sniffed stubbornly. "It's not so big."

"No?"

"Certainly not worth giving up your freedom."

"I am losing my patience with you, cat." Hestia said dangerously.

The cat licked a paw nonchalantly. "Are you?"

"Such insolence! My sacred hearth is easily fifty times your size! If you were to fall in, it would consume you instantly!"

The cat pricked his ears. "That sounds like a threat."

"Perhaps it was." The goddess straitened.

The cat stood and stared boldly. "You wouldn't dare."

_Thump._

That is the sound of Hestia's foot as it made swift contact with the cat's mid-section and sent him flying backward, into the goddess's sacred hearth.

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_Well. Another chapter down. Sorry it was a while updating it. Hope you liked it!_


	4. Chapter 4

Nine Lives

Chapter 4

When the cat awoke, he was in a dense forest, somewhere on Mt. Olympus. Shaking the ash out of his fur, he meandered through the wood until he came to a clearing. It was there, encircled by and knobby trees, that he stumbled upon a capricious young man who reeked of alcohol.

With slurred pronunciation, the man was singing a strange medley that combined every Greek folk song that the cat had ever heard – and some he hadn't heard – recited at the top of small lungs in children's ball fields, so that the subject ranged from the tale of old Midas and his golden touch (very popular), to the exploits of a rather vulgar fawn (a bit more obscure, this). His audience consisted of several kegs of fermenting wine, a green-eyed leopard, lounging nearby, and, only recently, a jaded tabby cat. For several minutes, the cat watched the man stumble about, obviously intoxicated. Could he be a god? Unlikely. Yet here they stood, on Mt. Olympus. Confidence building, the cat approached the man.

"Pardon, drunken stranger. . ." began the cat, but the man did not hear him over his own dreadful singing. The cat opened his mouth to speak louder, but even as he did so, the man's weight shifted a bit too far to the right. A foot swung out reflexively to correct his balance, and landed smack-dab over the cat's prone tail. The cat bit back a hiss of pain and anger, swallowed it.

"Drunk . . . en . . . stranger," ground out the cat, struggling to pull his tail free. "Be you man or god . . . mortal or mighty entity . . . nasty, filthy, puss-gathering, worm-ridden parasite or vain, fickle, miserable idol of the like, if you do not release me. . . in. . . this very instant. . ." The cat had unsheathed his claws, fully prepared to rip into the flesh of the offending foot, when the man finally noticed his presence.

"Eh. . .?" The man lifted his foot, swiveled his head around to affix the cat with an unfocused gaze. "Heh. Eh heh. Ah hahe hah he! Look, Amicus, haha heh heeee, a bitty mortal cat!" The man paused to take a breath, tickled, inexplicably, by the sight of the cat. The leopard, the presumed Amicus, stared over in his direction with mild interest. The man kneeled unsteadily. "Have you come to join my merry band, bitty cat?"

The cat regarded him reproachfully. "I'm not entirely sure I'm overly fond of you, or your 'merry band,' drunken stranger." he replied.

"Are you not?" asked the man thickly. "Why. . . why, then we must persuade you otherwise, mustn't we, Amicus? Yes! Come, cat! Come taste my wine! It is the finest you will ever drink!" With surprising speed, the man snatched a goblet off the ground, dashed to fill it from one of the kegs, and dashed back. "Smell its bouquet," he said, "Let it warm you, let it drown and buoy you."

The cat backed away a bit, put off by the man's insistent manor. "Ye-eah. . . no, thanks."

A flicker of dim anger flashed across the man's features. "Why not?"

"Why," The cat backed up farther still. "I am but a poor lost cat, and wine-" Feeling himself bump into something, the cat half turned and saw that he had backed into one of the kegs. Deftly, he leapt up perch on the brim of the keg before continuing. "Wine is the drink of the gods, the elixir of life. . . I am unworthy." The cat hung his head, letting his tail droop till the end was dunked in wine. The alcohol stung his still-throbbing wound, but he didn't jerk it out.

After a pause, the man laughed. "Oh ho ho, fear not, you wretched thing! For you have the permission of Dionysus himself! Take to my wine! Feel free! Be merry!" said the god.

"Oh. . . how very kind." replied the cat. "Well, if you do insist. I _have_ had a growing discomfort in my belly." And with that, the cat proceeded to lift a leg and relieve himself, with excellent aim, right into Dionysus's wine keg.

The god in question made a strangled sort of chocking sound- unintelligible to the cat, but clear enough to Amicus. The leopard had a new chew toy.

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So what did you think of this chapter? Thanks for the reviews! They were very supportive! I'll update again as soon as I can.

~Kayla


	5. Chapter 5

Nine Lives

Chapter 5

The cat was on a roll.

With practiced ease, he got up, shook himself off, and set off to roam the forest of Mt. Olympus, and meet whatever and whoever he happened upon with his jaunty, kitty wit.

Upon encountering a frog on the forest floor, the cat thought he'd fancy himself a big, ferocious tiger (nastier even than that pussy leopard Amicus, who, the cat didn't mind mentioning, had the most rancid breath), just to pass the time. When the cat pounced, the frog jumped, enticing the cat to pounce once more. The cat was soon enjoying this game so completely that he barely noticed (or cared) where the frog was leading him.

Not far up ahead, unbeknownst to the cat, a huntress prowled on the balls of her feet, stealthily, carefully, never making a whisper of sound. Her skin was browned by sun, her eyes wild and fiery with fierce pride. Only yards away, she spotted her quarry: a young buck. He was a fantastic specimen of deer, everything about him rippling with vitality. He grazed peacefully. Straitening slowly, the huntress selected an arrow and prepared her bow. Her muscles were charged with as much tension as her weapon, itching to take life. He was hers.

About here is where our cat comes in.

You have probably already guessed what is about to happen, and you're most likely correct, but allow me to illustrate it anyway. Out from the nearby bushes popped a frog, of which the young buck did not take notice. Then, with a great deal more twig snapping and leaf crunching leaped the cat, and the buck bolted. The cat had barely caught a glimpse of the deer when an arrow embedded itself harmlessly in the dirt a foot away, causing the cat to start and look around wildly.

There, a few yards away, stood Artemis, goddess of the hunt. This time, there was no mistaking the deity. She stood there, emanating power, clutching a bow, and burning the cat with her eyes.

Even while the arrow that had missed its mark was still quivering in the ground, a raucous started up. The high, slightly deranged laughter of wood nymphs rang through the trees, openly mocking the goddess. Artemis's face reddened in fury.

Decisively, without a second thought, the goddess selected another arrow and raised her bow, fitting the arrow into place.

The cat had completely lost track of his frog now.

Artemis released the arrow.

". . . Oh." was all the cat could think to say before the new arrow met its mark.

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_I'm lovin' those reviews, peoplez XD _

_In answer to one of them: No, the cat, being that he is a rather unfortunate cat, does not have a name. I'd never really thought about naming him, but now I'm curious. What name would you guys give him? Really, if you have any ideas, I'd like to know! :)_

_~Kayla_


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